What Is a Revenue Officer? Responsibilities, Vs. Revenue Agent

What Is a Revenue Officer?

A revenue officer is an employee of a government or a public agency who collects delinquent taxes or fees. The job is performed on a case-by-case basis and generally involves directly contacting individuals or businesses that are in arrears on payments.

At the federal level, revenue officers are employed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the United States and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in Canada. State and local tax departments also employ revenue officers. In some cases, the job title may be tax collector.

In the U.S., revenue officers are not revenue agents. The latter job title is held by auditors who review tax filings to identify any errors or discrepancies.

Responsibilities of a Revenue Officer

Revenue officers are primarily involved in collecting debts owed to the agencies for which they work. Their roles in the U.S. and in Canada differ somewhat.

In Canada, excise tax revenue officers have audit, advisory, and legal roles.

In the U.S., the primary responsibility of revenue officers who work for the IRS is collecting delinquent and overdue tax returns.

An IRS revenue officer also:

• conducts face-to-face interviews with taxpayers
• obtains and analyzes financial information to ascertain a person's ability to pay the tax bill
• designs payment plans to help those with tax arrears pay them over time
• garnishes wages and seizes personal property to pay off delinquent taxes

A revenue officer with the IRS may also file for extensions on the statutes of limitations for tax collection and initiate administrative and judicial action.

This position is often confused with that of a revenue agent, who conducts audits of tax returns.

Special Considerations

While they are government employees, IRS revenue officers do not carry firearms or have the authority to arrest taxpayers.

One of their primary duties is to help create a payment plan for collecting any unpaid taxes. The officer may also seek an unannounced, in-person visit with the delinquent taxpayer. This is known as a field audit.

Job Outlook

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) groups together examiners, collectors, and revenue agents into one category in its Occupational Outlook Handbook.

These professionals earned an average annual salary of $56,780 per year in 2021. That translates to $27.30 per hour. The number of jobs in the field in 2021 totaled 55,300.

Job growth in this field is expected to decline by 7% by 2031.

Revenue Officers vs. Revenue Agents

While a revenue officer actually collects taxes, revenue agents handle tax audits. Revenue officers for tax agencies cover the more difficult tax cases. When the IRS isn't able to collect by means of letters, phone calls, tax levies, or garnishments, they send revenue officers. These officers have the authority to seize and sell assets to cover tax liabilities. They can also approve or reject payment plans.

The role of a revenue agent is to determine tax liability via an audit. The audit that agents carry out is also known as an examination. As such, these individuals work directly with taxpayers, their representatives, tax preparers, and tax lawyers.

Frequently Asked Questions